A day with Hikaru
by soruen
Summary: Sai is a young professional Go player, and he got a secret. He's stuck with his very own ghost, whose name is Hikaru.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own the series Hikaru no Go or the characters.

Chapter 1: A day in the Go Institute

* * *

"Good morning, Fujiwara-sensei." A few people greeted as soon as he stepped into the Go Institute. Only one face was vaguely familiar amongst them but it would be impolite to not return their greetings. He had long since grown used to be greeted by strangers who knew him through his Go.

"Good morning" A gentle smile went with the greeting.

"It was a brilliant win against Touya-sensei in the Honinbo title match yesterday, Fujiwara-sensei." A middle age female congratulated him as he passed by her. The mention of the game brought another smile to his face; being able to play a beautiful game with someone he respected always made him filled with happiness.

"Thank you for the compliment." He nodded his head slightly in modesty; though it was not his first time defending his title, it was the first time the challenger was Touya-Meijin, someone whom is much like a rival to him.

The tirade of comments and compliments was almost endless and the only thing Sai could do was to smile and thank each of them as he slowly proceeded through the small crowd that had gathered around him. It was another thing he had grown used to after winning his first title a few years ago at the young age of 21.

Even though it was quite tiring to continuously exchange pleasantry with others when all he wanted to do was sit down and play a game of Go, it was something he needed to do lest he appeared rude.

"Don't you find it irritating?" A young, curious face suddenly popped out sideway in front of him, bright green eyes peering up at Sai with blond bangs framing a half translucent face of a teenager. But before Sai could said anything the boy was already gone, flitting in-between the people surrounding Sai. He even attempted to poke quite a few of them.

Attempted was, of course, the keyword and luckily so. Sai had no doubt that if any of them were to hear what the teenager said or to feel Hikaru's poking, they would be highly offended. It was not the first time that Sai felt relieve that this boy's words would never reach anyone's ears beside his own; nor would his touch be felt by someone other than himself.

'Hikaru,' He reprimanded the teenager lightly through the mental link they shared, only for Hikaru to start sulking.

"It's not like they can feel or hear me anyway." Hikaru scoffed, sticking out his tongue at a few female admirers who followed a little too close to Sai. Sai frowned at Hikaru's comment, and tried not to dwell on how lonely that must have been.

Not being able to communicate with anyone else, not being able to touch anything, not being able to know the joy of eating; no other _living_ beings would ever know of his existence. It was a fate far too cruel to be bestowed on a child of merely 15.

'It's still rude,' Sai told Hikaru disapprovingly to distract himself from that depressing trail of thought. The younger of the two only gave a shrug, causing Sai to have a feeling that it would not be the last time they will be having this particular discussion.

Sai pressed the button for the lift when the crowd had finally left after he politely told them his match would be starting soon. He closed his eyes and let out a small sigh for finally having a moment of peace. However it was a moment too short to be truly enjoyed.

"Ne, ne, Sai, you won't believe how cool this is." Hikaru's excited yell came from Sai's left. Sai clenched one of his fists to prevent losing control over his expressions.

Hikaru was standing next to a vending machine, but his head could not be seen. In fact it looked very much as if his head was cut off and his neck was attached to the outside of the vending machine. His head was clearly inside the vending machine, exploring the content. Sai was not amused.

"I never knew the vending machine looked like this on the inside." Hikaru beamed as he extracted his head out. "There're lots of coins and the cans are all lined up together." He started to rub his hands together almost gleefully. "If only I can grab them, I'll never need to worry about being broke or being thirsty anymore."

Sai restrained himself from massaging his temple.

'Hikaru, in your state, you don't need to worry about being broke or being thirsty; and even if you need to, you will not be able to grab them. Stop fantasizing about unnecessary things.' Sai told Hikaru, who seem to be ignoring Sai as he made his way to the fish tank on the other side of the lift 'Hikaru, are you listening to me?'

Thankfully, before Hikaru did something stupid again, like sticking his entire head into the fish tank, the lift finally arrived. Nonetheless, a headache was already forming. Sai stepped into the lift, a little more forcefully than needed, earning a few strange looks from the people exiting.

It was not long before they reached the level where Sai would be playing his game today. Hikaru, being the impatient teenager he was, ran out of the lift even before the door fully opened and disappeared from Sai's sight. Sai mentally sighed, while he knew teenagers could be impatient, it was never really proven during his interactions with the younger pros and insei.

Sai was not really worried though, seeing that there was hardly anything Hikaru could do to cause disarray. Moreover, knowing the fact that Hikaru can never stray too far from him further reassured him. With Hikaru constricted to only this level, the only thing that the boy could do here was to watch the various Go matches that was going on, unless he wished to float around aimlessly for the rest of the day.

His opponent today, a young 4-Dan by the name of Waya, showed signs of nervousness through his shaking voice as they exchanged greetings. It was clear that it was one of Waya's first few times in an official game with higher Dan players. Gently smiling at the young pro, Sai opened his fan and covered the bottom half of his face as he pondered to play a quick game or not.

* * *

Author's Note:

Each chapter of this fanfic will be written in the format of a short story happening in this AU where Hikaru is the ghost instead of Sai. I'll be mostly following some facts in the original series but a lot of things will still be different. Anything strange or incorrect please let me know, seeing that it is not beta-ed. Both comments and criticisms are welcomed.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own the series Hikaru no Go or the characters.

Chapter 2: A day on the Street

"" – means talking

'' – means thought/speaking through mind link

* * *

"The boring match is finally over, and it's dinner time!" Hikaru exclaimed excitedly, rubbing his stomach with a hungry look. "Let's have ramen for dinner!" He tugged at Sai's sleeve, but it was the one battle he could not win. Sai took a quick look to make sure that no one was paying attention to his sleeves.

'Hikaru, you can't eat anything.' Sai informed the boy slowly while trying to smooth his sleeve without people noticing that there was something invisible tugging at it. 'Please remember that you are a ghost, and ghosts do not need to eat.' Hikaru stuck out his tongue at Sai again. It was something he did so often that Sai had lost count of how many times he did it. Seriously, before meeting Hikaru, Sai never knew boys in their teenage years still do the childish act of sticking out their tongue.

"At least we finally got out of that boring building. I don't know how you can stand being in there for so long without getting bored." Hikaru yawned and stretched himself, as if to prove his point. Sai huffed indignantly, earning a few strange looks which he ignored. Talking to Hikaru about the wonder of Go is almost like talking to the wall, except that the wall would not argue back.

"You could have easily crushed your opponent today as well." Hikaru continued talking, not taking note of Sai's silence. "Anyone could see that he was totally out-classed. But no, you had to play shidougo with him and waste your own time."

'Waya-kun has a lot of talent.' Sai tried to protest. But Hikaru had run off again, looking at a pair of sports shoe through the window of a sports store longingly. Sai took a look at what captured Hikaru's attention and frowned when he saw the price of a too colorful pair of shoes.

'Anyway, my point is that instead of destroying the younger pros by crushing them, higher Dans should help them improve and realize their potential.' Sai projected his thoughts to Hikaru whose attention had wandered once again to the display of a soccer ball. 'Hikaru, are you listening to me?'

"I'm listening." Hikaru rolled his eyes as he left the soccer ball on display and trailed after Sai. "I still think you are wasting your own time though, those young pros suck." Even though Hikaru claimed to be listening to Sai, he was doing a poor job of paying attention as he was attracted away by a display of video games not a moment later.

'We learn something from every game, Hikaru.' Sai continued in his attempt to make Hikaru understand Go a little more. 'Whether it's against strong or weak player, whether we lose or win; there's always something to be learnt. And it's not like I have a choice of who to play in my Ooteai matches.'

"Maybe you should just play in title matches and competitions?" Hikaru suggested. "That way you will meet the better players more often." Hikaru reached out for the video games on the other side of the window, but made a face when his hands simply passed through them.

'Every player has to play in the Ooteai to rise in ranking.' Sai informed the teenager slowly. 'I should have told you that a few times already.' Hikaru scoffed and finally turned back to face Sai.

"Yea, along with the other boring facts about the Go world you rattle to me every other night." Hikaru raised his arms and placed them behind his head before letting out a sigh. "And aren't you already a 9 Dan? What other rank is there for you to rise up to?" Sai stared at the back of the teenager who had begun to walk away, a little stunned, that fact had never once crossed his mind.

He held back a wince as he watched Hikaru walking through several passers-by nonchalantly. Even if he might be a ghost and no one else could see him, it was not enough as a reason to walk like he owned the road, Sai decided, before catching up with Hikaru and gave him a lecture.

Sometimes Sai himself was amazed by the change that Hikaru brought to him after their meeting. He could never recall speaking more than a few sentences with another person before, much less lecturing them. But then again, it could be the fact that he had never met anyone with as little manners as Hikaru before. Sai rolled his eyes when he caught Hikaru rolling his eyes at him again.

'It's rude to roll your eyes at another person when they're talking to you, Hikaru.' Sai yelled after the boy, who was looking at an advertisement of a movie poster with a rather devastated face.

"I've been waiting for this movie to come out in theatres for ages." Hikaru groaned and ruffled his own hair agonizingly. "Why? Why did it come out only after I became a ghost? Why? Of all the people I could have possess, it was someone who had never watch a single movie before in his whole life?"

'What do you mean by that?' While Sai gave Hikaru a glare, several passers-by gave Sai a weird look for glaring at an empty space. 'It's rude to assume that on your own, Hikaru! I did watch movie in theatres when I was younger.' Hikaru stopped ruffling his hair and turned over to give Sai a flat look. 'It's true.' Sai repeated, looking just a little flustered.

"Then let's go watch this movie together now." Hikaru replied with a wicked grin. "You don't even need to buy a ticket for me." He pointed out smugly. Sai turned to examine to poster once more. It featured a foreign boy holding up a stick, Sai peered at it closely, unable to figure out the purpose of the stick.

'Ne, Hikaru, why is this boy holding a stick in his hand?' He finally asked, earning an incredulous look from the ghost. Hikaru was gaping at Sai with an open mouth. 'Hikaru? Are you okay?' Sai questioned worriedly after a minute of silence. Hikaru extended a finger to point at Sai shakily.

"I…can't…believe you've never heard of Harry Potter before!" He started to ruffle his hair in frustration again. "Where have you been the past few years?"

They bickered all the way home after that, with Hikaru ranting on the impossibilities of someone like Sai existing and Sai trying to defend himself. A few times Sai found himself in the middle of an explanation before noticing that the cheerful ghost was no longer standing next to him and listening. He would first looked around in surprise before he could discovered Hikaru, who had long since lost interest in listening to Sai, staring longingly at some gadget or another.

It would result in another bickering session where Hikaru is almost exasperated in explaining the various modern items that every other normal person would know about and started shouting in frustration.

"Ahh! Ramen!" Hikaru exclaimed all of a sudden and took off towards a ramen stall not far ahead. "Ne, ne, let's get ramen for dinner, Sai!" Sai tried to ignore Hikaru's excited yells and walked passed the shop. However, Hikaru was not a person to give up easily, he tugged and dragged Sai's arm while whining and listing the reasons why ramen is the best food in the world.

Sai, on the other hand, faced a dilemma; tried as he might to resist Hikaru's tugging and dragging, too much movement would appear strange, if not crazy to the people around that could not see Hikaru.

It was Hikaru who won the battle and Sai could only smile weakly at the waitress that greeted him politely and asked for his order. It took half a bowl of ramen before Sai could continue on his way home with a sulking Hikaru whining about wasting food.

Somehow, the usually long journey it took for Sai to travel between the Go Institute and his house was over in a blink of an eye. Sai found himself staring at his front door for ten seconds before he noticed that he had already reached home. In which during that amount of time Hikaru had already slipped in through the door and yelling at Sai to hurry up.

"Hikaru, stop being so impatient." Sai reprimanded lightly as he opened the door, turning his key to unlock it, unaware that he had spoken out loud instead of projecting his thoughts to the young ghost.

Hikaru was already lounging on the floor as he looked up at Sai neatly putting away his shoes.

"Okaeri." He said cheekily. Sai blinked, a little taken back, it had been a long time since he had returned home to anything but an empty house.

"Ta…tadaima, Hikaru." He stumbled slightly over the unfamiliar word; a surge of unrecognized feelings was slowly rising up within his chest.

"Now," Hikaru's tone turned menacing. "Switch on the T.V." He pointed at the new television Sai had gotten just the day before after his nonstop whining about having nothing to do while Sai studied kifu.

Sai stared at Hikaru for a moment, before turning his gaze to the newly bought television. His gaze rested on the box containing the television for a long time, wondering how he should break the news to Hikaru that he had absolutely no idea how to set it up.

* * *

Author's Note:

It's been a while since I update… This is the second chapter (still unbeta-ed) of this fanfic; hope you will enjoy reading it. As usual, anything strange or incorrect please let me know, both comments and criticisms are welcomed.

Much thanks to **Yukino-chan**, **sasukun**, **Pure Shikon**, **zeynel**, **primaaryet** and **henki8** for taking time to leave a review.

Much thanks to **Ao yuki**for pointing out several mistakes as well.

And to answer the questions from **hikarusai** and **moi**, Hikaru is indeed from the modern timeline, what happened to him will be explained in later chapters; and I'm quite sorry to say that there will be no romance between Sai and Hikaru, just friendship.


	3. Interlude

Disclaimer: I do not own the series Hikaru no Go or the characters.

Christmas Day Special: Christmas with Hikaru  
*Edited

"" – means talking

'' – means thought/speaking through mind link

* * *

It was an evening just like any other day, in which after spending an entire day at the Go Institute again, Sai slowly made his way home. Next to him, walked a younger boy, who in all physical appearance looked as if he would fit in more at an arcade instead of the Go Institute. If anyone was to spot him walking next to Sai, the Go genius, no doubt they would wonder how they got to know each other. If, that is to say, anyone manage to spot the boy at all.

The young boy in question was currently flailing his arms around, trying to make a point through his heated argument with Sai.

"That's why I said you should just forget about playing those weaklings in the first place!" He raved on in a much too loud voice that made Sai cringe.

'Hikaru, you should not look down on the lower dans players, they are trying their best too.' Sai replied, but instead of talking out loud, he merely "transferred" what he wishes to tell Hikaru over the mind link they share. Hikaru was not a normal boy; he was a spirit that had somehow attached himself to Sai. Why Hikaru was attached to him instead of anyone else Sai do not know, but he was already getting use to life with Hikaru.

Hikaru was always full of energy and never could stay in the same spot or position for long. Wherever Sai went, he would surely wander around looking for something interesting to do instead of merely staying next to him; more often than not he would be trying out what he could do as a ghost. It was sort of an experiment to test the limit of a ghost, if Sai was to quote Hikaru. Sai shuddered at the memory of getting Hikaru to come out from a girl's toilet.

_~Flashback~_

'_Hikaru, where are you?' Sai called out for the young boy after exiting the toilet. The ghost had decline to enter earlier and mumbling about the place being boring__. It had been 5 minutes since he last saw Hikaru, and Sai was getting worried, about what mischief he could get up to. He tried calling to Hikaru through the mind link endlessly but failed to get any reply. 'Hikaru~~~?'_

"_Give me a minute!" Hikaru finally replied. Sai frowned and turned to the direction where he heard the voice came from. He stood facing the female toilet. for he was worried about what Hikaru was doing inside and attracting weird looks at the same time by trying to look into the girl's toilet. _

'_Hikaru! Tell me you are not in the girls' toilet.' Sai said pleadingly, shifting his gaze a little in an attempt to see if the boy was indeed where he thought he was. Sai shrink back a little when a woman in her forties came out of the toilet and glared at him for staring._

"_I said I'll be out in a minute." Hiakru's irritated voice came from inside the toilet once again. "I just want to see what's so different about girls' toilet." Now sure of the fact that Hikaru had indeed entered the female toilet, Sai tried to breathe in deeply to calm himself down. He was extremely tempted to flail around in horror at the mere thoughts of what Hikaru could be doing inside.__ Unaware of Sai's panic attack, Hikaru did not stop talking._

"_I always wanted to know why girls take forever in the toilet." Sai closed his eyes and tried to count to a hundred, resisting the urge to run inside and drag Hikaru out by his ears. It was at that moment that Sai felt sorry for Hikaru's parent when they were bringing him up as a child._

'_Hikaru! Come out from the female toilet this instance!' Sai finally yelled when he calmed down enough to trust himself to not run in. _

_~End Flashback~_

It was one incident Sai could never live down if he was recognized by anyone. He could already visualize the headline of the next issue of 'Weekly Go' if that was to happen: "Go Prodigy Caught trying to enter Female Toilet". It was just lucky for Sai that Hikaru decided to come out after a few minutes of 'exploring' it.

Sai shivered a little and pulled his coat to wrap around himself tighter as a breeze of cold wind blew past. The season had turned cold before he knew it, and it was once again nearer the end of this year. Hikaru, it seemed, did not fail to notice Sai's gesture.

"Winter's coming already, huh?" He commented and turned to look at all the people walking on the street, none of them failing to wear a coat or jacket to keep themselves warm. Once again, Hikaru would have looked extremely out of place in his attire of T-Shirt, pants and sneaker without looking the least bit cold, if anyone beside Sai managed to see him.

"It's snowing." Hikaru stared up at the sky wistfully as white snow came fluttering down. He reached out a hand as if waiting for a snowflake to land on his hand. He smiled wryly when a few passed through instead of staying on his palm. For a moment, it was as if the bright, energetic ghost of a boy Sai knew for the past months was gone and replaced by a tired old man who had lived for way too long. Sai thought his heart might just break.

How cruel it is, for a child to go through the pain of not being to touch anything…

"That means Christmas is coming doesn't it?" Hikaru broke the silence and exclaimed all of a sudden, grinning widely, back to normal and completely different to how he had looked moments prior. Sai was almost amazed by the huge chance that occurred in less than a second, almost. "I want a Christmas present, Sai~~~~! Get me something nice like, a new pair of Adidas sneaker." He whined.

'Hikaru! There's no point buying you any sneaker because you can't wear them.' Sai retorted and rolled his eyes.

"Ahhh~ I wonder if the snow will pile up?" Hikaru mused as he looked at the snow longingly again. "I want to make a snowman like I do every year…" Sai smiled lightly to himself at the mental image of Hikaru trying to build a snowman with that short temper of his. "And make snowballs…" The smile faded away a little and was replaced by a small frown. "I'll miss going around the neighborhood pelting everyone passing by with snowballs, especially Akari. Akari's the girl that lives near me, we grew up together." Hikaru explained to Sai and it was only then he noticed the frown on Sai's face.

But Hikaru did not seem to know the meaning of tact. He patted Sai lightly on the arm.

"Don't worry, if you worry about being one of the victims, you can join me in pelting them; I won't target a fellow comrade." He informed Sai cheerfully. "We can do that every year, it'll be fun."

"Hikaru~ you will do not such thing!"

It was Hikaru's turn to cringe from the loud voice and for the next three days he rubbed his ears every time Sai spoke to him while they were at home. But if someone was to ask Hikaru, he would reply with a grin on his face that it was worth it; with all the looks Sai attracted from everyone on the street for shouting out loud all of the sudden at nothing and the embarrassed way Sai mumbled his apologies and tried to escape was a scene etched into Hikaru's memory for forever.

* * *

Hope you enjoyed reading it, even if it is a little short.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own the series Hikaru no Go or the characters.

Chapter 3: A Day in which Sai had a great idea

"" – means talking

'' – means thought/speaking through mind link

* * *

It was another uneventful day spent at the Go Institute. He played another game today, and won it again as well, discussing it with his opponent after the game ended and made his way home. His life was dull, uneventful, normal and repeating itself day after day. Not that he did not enjoy playing all those games of Go, but lately, it did felt that such a life had been boring compared to life after his meeting with a certain someone.

As discreetly as possible, Fujiwara Sai stared at the certain someone, an animated figure of a boy who was walking next to him. Hikaru was talking loudly about some prank or another he had pulled, along with wide hand gestures that would surely hit some passers-by. But it didn't. Sai's eye flickered to where Hikaru's hand should have made contact with an elderly man and probably knocking the poor man over in normal circumstances. Yet it did not happen.

"Oi, Sai, are you even listening to me?" Hikaru stopped talking when he noticed that the purple hair pro was not paying any attention to his tale and frowned at him. "Great, the only person that can hear me ignores me!" He exclaimed while rolling his eyes exasperatedly. Sai shook his head bemusedly at the antics his own, personal ghost was pulling, trying to recapture his attention.

It was not the first time, nor did he expect it to be the last time, that Sai pondered on Hikaru's extraordinary existence. He wondered all sort of things about it, being a ghost. He supposed that if it were him, he would feel terribly lonely and saddened, because if he was a ghost, he most certainly would not be able to hold the Go stones with his own hands. Not being able to play Go was something that felt could be a worst fate than being dead.

But, Hikaru being Hikaru, seemed to have _ignored_ the fact that he was, in fact a ghost, and went on about life as normal as any other hyperactive teenage boys Sai sometimes saw on the streets. He was so animated, so lively, so much the opposite of Sai himself that he could not help but wondered how it happened.

Of all the millions other people living in Japan, why was it Sai that this boy came to? There had to be some reason that Sai was the only one able to see Hikaru, to hear and touch and interact with someone that was already dead. Or was he? Sai turned to get another good look at Hikaru.

He was not pale or translucent, he had proper feet and walked on the street step by step, his feet even seem to make noise when it landed on the pavement! Indeed, when Sai looked at Hikaru among a crowd, there was no evidence to suggest that Hikaru was different from any of them. In fact, Hikaru seemed to blend in more with the crowd in his casual clothes than Sai in his semi-formal clothes, if that was possible.

Sometimes when he was with Hikaru, Sai would wonder if Hikaru was really a ghost…

"Ne, Sai, can we have ramen for dinner tonight again?" Hikaru poked Sai when they passed by the ramen restaurant that was located on the way home from the Go Institute, his mouth was almost watering. Sai felt an urge to roll his eyes but managed to restrain the action in time. The past few months spent with Hikaru had Sai picking up some bad habits, much to his own horror.

'Hikaru, you can't eat, you are a ghost.' Sai felt that a either a vein or a blood vessel somewhere in his body was about to explode soon if he had to explain it one more time. 'And I've been having ramen for the past week at your insistent; I am NOT going to eat anymore ramen for as long as possible.' The smile Sai gave the waitress at the entrance was quite a strained one as he politely excused himself.

It did not matter that Hikaru was the first and probably only ghost that Sai had met, but Sai was sure that Hikaru had to the ghost with the least self-unawareness ever. Half the time Sai had to remind the ghost himself that 'no, ghost can't eat, Hikaru' and most of the time he would get a sad kicked-puppy look in return.

"Fine, be mean to your favorite ghost." Hikaru started to sulk. Sai paled slightly, a sulky Hikaru never meant a good thing, most of the time his ears would be left ringing at the lack of rest they would get when Hikaru get into a sulky rant about why one should treat their ghost nicely. It also meant that Sai could say goodbye to his peaceful night of studying Go.

'You are the only ghost I know of, Hikaru.' Sai spoke slowly although Hikaru was probably not paying anymore attention to him, thinking of a way to placate the ghost and be able to study Go peacefully tonight. Hikaru had already started on his rant of 'A Hundred and One ways to treat your own, personal Ghost nicely' and did not look as if he was to stop anytime soon.

It would not be hard to tune out what Hikaru was saying, but the constant noise near his ears would be all it take to break his ability to concentrate fully anyway. Go was important enough to Sai that he disliked studying it half-heartedly; it was like being not respectful to the Go players that played the games if Sai did not study their games with all his hearts.

Well, he could always on the television and bombard the ghost with so many questions that Hikaru, with his short patience would forget about being irritated at not being able to eat ramen and getting reminded of that fact. Sai moaned mentally at the dilemma of either not being able to study Go or not getting any peace from Hikaru's ranting.

Hikaru or Go? Hikaru, Go…Go, Hikaru… Hikaru…and Go? Sai felt his own eyes widened at the crazy idea that suddenly popped up in his head. It was totally crazy and seemed as if that the world would sooner end before it would work. But if he could make it work, it would be two birds killed with one stone.

"Sai? Can you stop grinning creepily at me?" Hikaru had paused in his rant to turn back and looked at Sai when he felt a shiver crawling up his back. It was quite a strange feeling, to feel chilly as a ghost. And his six sense was screaming at him to get as quickly away from Sai as possible when he saw the older man grinning madly with a glint in his eyes as he surveyed Hikaru.

"Now you are really creeping me out." Hikaru gulped and took a few steps backward. Sai's grin did not falter at all.

'Hikaru, I just had this amazing idea.' Sai told his ghost cheerfully. Too cheerfully, in fact, that Hikaru knew nothing good would come out of whatever crazy idea Sai had. 'I've no idea why I didn't think of it earlier.' Sai's grin was starting to get so cheerful that his eyes were practically shooting sparks; something that Hikaru did not know was possible.

"What?" He asked rudely, hoping that his tone of voice was enough to put Sai off the idea that whatever idea he had would be a good one. He knew he was doomed when he swore that sparks _did_ come out of Sai's eyes.

"Wouldn't you like to learn how to play Go?"

* * *

Author's note:

So it's been quite a while since I updated, sorry to anyone if they were waiting for this .

Again, this chapter is not beta-read by anyone so I apologise for any mistake spotted, as well as the fact that nothing exciting seem to happen in this chapter.

Much love and thanks to those that left a review!


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own the series Hikaru no Go or the characters.

Chapter 4: A day from Hikaru's Point Of View

"" – means talking

'' – means thought/speaking through mind link

* * *

Hikaru stared at a happy, smiling Sai not far away from him, humming to himself as he hanged out clothes on the balcony. The cartoon playing on the television before him played on, unnoticed by the ghost of a boy, whose expression was currently unusually blank. His grey-green eyes, normally so fill of life despite the fact that he was a ghost, was cold as well, as they followed Sai's figure around while he did his housework.

But it was all gone in the blink of an eye, as Hikaru grinned and gave Sai a cheery wave when he spotted the man looking his way and beamed at him, as if the young face had never once lost its smile. Rolling his eyes at the childish man dangling his clothes in the most ridiculous ways, Hikaru shifted his eyes back to the television, attempting to watch it.

However, he soon found his eyes glazed over the show as it played on, unable to focus on anything except Sai at the moment.

Figments of memories of Sai danced across his mind, each more pathetic than its predecessor, and only served to cause Hikaru a big migraine. He supposed he was lucky enough that he was already a ghost, and had no life left for Sai to endanger. The man was seriously a menace to himself and to everyone around him, if there was any, whenever he attempted housework.

When Sai cooked, he destroyed his own kitchen; he spoilt countless ovens, ruined a huge number of pots and pans and always almost caused his own kitchen to go up into flames each time. It scared Hikaru enough the first time he experienced it and made it so that whenever Sai's eyes lighted up in the idea of trying his hand at creating yet another exotic dish, it was all it took to send Hikaru floating in the other direction as fast as possible.

When Sai tried his hands at laundry, it meant that it was time for new clothes, and possibly a new washing machine; secretly Hikaru thought they had no need of a new one if it would spoil, for it would be much safer if there wasn't one in the house to tempt Sai to use it anymore. He felt that one time was enough to let Sai learnt that some clothes were not meant to be mixed and washing powder to be marginally poured, and yet it had been three times Hikaru observed the torture the poor washing machine underwent by Sai's hand. Luckily hand-washing was much a more agreeable process for him, or he would never have clean laundry, ever.

When Sai needed to use a handphone, Hikaru felt sorrier for it than for Sai, as he watched it buzzed, went haywire and finally dying after a short while of direct contact with his bare hand. Each and every handphone Sai touched without wearing gloves was rendered useless and unsalvageable, and Hikaru had the opportunity of watching the unfortunate demise of not one, not two, but five handphones during his entire stay with Sai so far, thanks to Sai's forgetfulness when it comes to everything _but_ Go.

Hikaru concluded that Sai should no longer try to use most modern, electric appliances, seeing that somehow the process would _always_ turn so dangerous he often had half a mind to advert his eyes from the sparks and fizzing noise, if not for the need to warn Sai to escape. It was really quite ironic of Sai to be born in these modern times with so many technologies when he was sure that Sai would live a much safer life in olden times without.

Yet no one could say that the heaven was unfair; for all that bad luck Sai was cursed towards electronic devices, he was equally blessed with as many talents.

His talent in Go, had earned him two titles at the young age of 24, with skills on par with Touya Meijin, the man with 4 titles, after merely 4 years in the professional world. Hikaru grimaced at the thought, as he remembered the nightly Go sessions Sai held with him; instead of teaching, he felt it was more of a slaughtering session for Sai to vent…

Sai's talent in calligraphy showed in his signature, and Hikaru bet that the beauty of it was enough to make many calligraphy masters go green with envy. Not that Hikaru could appreciate the art all that much, for it just seemed to him as though Sai was doodling an extremely complicated pattern.

Sai owned a flute, and played it beautifully just once, but it was enough to leave a deep impression in Hikaru as a memory he would treasure carefully. He was no musician, but he thought that the song Sai played ought to earn the man at least a reward or two.

Sai loved to sketch Hikaru on a notebook with pencil when he wasn't looking. They were casual, quick sketches and made Hikaru uncomfortable the whole time he played "model" for Sai, but he had to gruntingly agree that Sai managed to capture 70% of his charm when asked.

There was no sign or proof of it, but Hikaru knew all the same, that Sai was top of his school when he was studying; that whatever Sai chose to do, he did it perfectly.

Indeed, no one could deny that Sai was a gifted child since young, and his talents had only grown with his age; talents that Hikaru could never ever even hope of having. Not that he did not dream of it. His eyes grew darker still, as they trailed Sai moving about in the house on a mission to clean it, but in fact doing just the opposite.

"Soon…" He muttered softly to himself, letting out a tired sigh, he didn't have much time left anymore.

"Hikaru, stop watching TV, come and play a game of Go with me." Sai came down upon him from behind suddenly after some time, shocking Hikaru out of his stupor and almost wringing his neck in the process.

"Ow, let go of me!" Hikaru retorted rudely as a reflex, prying Sai's hand from himself. "And go away; it's just getting to the good part." He lied, as he had actually no idea what was showing on the television seeing that he had been engrossed in his own thoughts for the past hour or so. It seemed that Sai was finally done 'cleaning' the house; he carefully scrutinized the whole area, trying to judge the actual damage done to the house this time.

"Hikaru~" Sai whined loudly, pouting like a 3 year old denied his favorite candy. Hikaru rolled his eyes. Whatever happened to the serious, mature and trustworthy Fujiwara-sensei that the public adores? He wondered if his fans would cry to see their idol Sai ruining his own image so completely; but sadly no one seemed to know of Sai's other side aside from Hikaru the ghost (who could never tell anyone else).

Hikaru himself was rather surprised by Sai's childish antics at times when he was first subjected to it, after living with him for some time, but soon grew used to it. The pout suited Sai's face a little too well, and seemed to come too naturally to the man who used it without fear to get what he wanted from Hikaru. It made him suspect if the serious side of Sai was the façade instead.

"Just one game okay?" He finally gave in to Sai's demand and stuck out his tongue, knowing that Sai would continue to pester him until he finally agree. "I refuse to spend the entire night getting cream by you anymore!" He ruffled his own hair in annoyance, remembering how Sai never gave him any mercy even if he was just a beginner. More often than not it was during these sessions that made Hikaru wished desperately he could touch the Go board, if only to flip it over to vent his anger.

"You grow stronger faster with more experience." Was all Sai said in response, in a slow, mysterious, all-knowing voice that grated on Hikaru nerves.

"Liar! I bet you just relish in the process of creaming someone at full strength without holding back all the time like you does at the Association," Hikaru accused. At which Sai smiled a little wider smile, and didn't even try to refute anything at all.

"Just you wait, I'll beat you by 50 stones soon enough." He growled at the man, visualizing the day he could make Sai cry in forgiveness. Sai said nothing else in return as he prepared to set down the stone for Hikaru.

"Onegaishimasu." They bowed.

Before that fateful day arrived, he know he would treasure whatever remaining time he had left with Sai, the man he had grown to love dearly.

* * *

Author's note:

So it's been quite a year since I updated, super sorry to anyone waiting for this. I revamped part of the plot after thinking about it some time, so things would be moving at a faster pace from now on. Next chapter will resume in Sai's point of view again. Btw, I couldn't resist taking a little bit of reference from another manga on a certain part in this chapter, so if anyone recognized it, hope you enjoy nonetheless~

Again, I will apologize in advance for any mistake spotted since this chapter is still not beta-read by anyone lol, and my grammar is less than perfect.

Much love and kisses to you if you leave a review!

And to those who reviewed in the earlier chapters, thanks for reading and taking the time to review this story, you guys made my day every time I see your reviews:D

Some of you asked about Hikaru's back story, worry not, I'll be getting to it soon.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: If I owned HnG, Sai will never disappear!

Chapter 5: A Day to Celebrate…with Go, Go and lots of Go

A/N 1: Hello all. I am finally back after...11 months. (At least it's not a year yet?) As an apology I made this chapter a little longer. Enjoy!

"xxxxx" – means talking

'xxxxx' – means thought/speaking through mind link

* * *

Sai hummed merrily to himself even as he hung out his dripping wet laundry. It was a tune he heard on TV once, and found himself quite like, although Hikaru had mumbled something about do-ra-mon and childish. While Sai had no idea whatsoever is a doramon, he had not taken to getting called childish by someone looking younger than him happily and from there, it had evolved into yet another argument with Hikaru.

They had been having many of that lately, but strangely enough, although from what Sai had heard from other people before about how argument spoils the relationship between two people, the arguments he had with Hikaru often left the both of them huffing indignantly but not really any hard feelings. Sai did not encounter any discomfort when starting a new conversation merely minutes after their argument ended.

It was more than once that he wondered why he had heard other people complaining about the topic of 'couples arguing and fighting' as well as 'what a pain it is to make up with the other person again'.

He simply could not understand why they made such a big deal of such a simple matter. It was nothing that could not be solved by challenging the other party (Hikaru) to a game of Go. Whoever wins would, of course, be the one who had been correct in the argument, and the loser the wrong one.

Go was the solution to everything, Sai was once again assured whenever he trashed Hikaru in a game (or maybe a dozen) and had him admitting that Sai was the correct one.

He gave a slight frown when his wet laundry dripped water down onto his clean balcony. He let out a long sigh; such was the fate that he had to endure when not using the washing machine and its dryer. But for some reason Hikaru had turned unusually pale (an amazing feat considering he was a ghost) and had a sick look on his face (can a ghost even get sick?) as he vehemently tried to talk Sai out of the idea when he brought it up.

Sai had not insisted much since Hikaru was so uncomfortable at the suggestion, it made him wonder briefly if Hikaru had some bad experience with washing machines in the past before. Also, Sai had found out that his clothes tend to spoil faster when washed by machines, so he did not object much to hand washing.

Finally done with the chore of hanging out his wet clothes, Sai looked up at the sunny skies and admired what a fine day it was. For once in a very long time, his thoughts did not linger on the game that he had so loved. In fact, no thoughts of Go crossed his mind today, be it due to the fact that he had played so many games with Hikaru the night before that his daily Go quota had already been satisfied or was it because it's a special day today?

It's his birthday. And he's turning 20, finally coming of age* and no longer considered a child.

He would have total control of his own life from now on and could take matters into his own hands legally.

While Sai had moved out on his own as soon as he had graduated from high school to start on his Go pro career, much to the displeasure of his parents, he still had to report in to them once every four weeks to submit a report about his various accomplishments. He had his income and lifestyle monitored as well.

Hikaru had snorted himself silly the first time Sai told him of his monthly meetings with his father and bluntly told Sai that he 'have no life'.

The incorporeal boy had also strangely drifted so far away that Sai could barely been able to catch a glimpse of him every time during the past 5 dinners Sai had with his father ever since encountering Hikaru. But no matter how much Sai had whined about wanting to introduce his father to Hikaru, 'a purely ridiculous notion' the younger looking boy had grumbled, the ghost took no hint on it and refused vehemently to go within close vicinity of the man.

Hikaru's grumpiness always lingered on for days after Sai's dinner with his father, for some unknown reason that Sai had been unable to extract from the boy, and yesterday's meeting ended with no difference. Sai took comfort in the thought that at least it would be the last time, seeing that he had no plans to continue the monthly meetings anymore now that he can.

While that meant that Sai would no longer have to deal with a grumpy Hikaru in the future, it did not mean that he did not have to deal with a grumpy Hikaru _now_.

Sending a plaintive look at Hikaru in the living room from the balcony, Sai pondered about how he could lift the heavy atmosphere. Hikaru had _almost_reverted back to his normal, cheeky self after their fiftieth game last night, grumbling about how ruthless Sai was across the board. But this morning Sai woke up to a brooding Hikaru in front of the TV again.

Seeing the TV made Sai lamented his wallet for a second, followed by another minute spent lamenting for the poor machine.

The television, ever since it made its way to this house, had been at work without rest whenever Sai was not at the Go Institute. The first thing to do after reaching home after his games at the Institute was to on the TV, an action which had already become a habit to Sai. And he only switched it off moments before leaving the house for the Institute for his games again the next day.

That meant that the poor TV was made to work for at least 12 hours a day, and most of the time more, all for Hikaru's sake.

So much so that even Sai himself had gotten used to hearing the background noise coming from the TV at all times and no longer got distracted even if he was to study kifus in the living room or the kitchen instead of his soundproof game room.

With months of practice, he had even managed to eventually keep up a half-hearted conversation with Hikaru about mundane matters at the same time.

And mundane matters it was that Sai often chatted about with Hikaru. Mostly things like what he was, _should_, get for dinner that particular night or the next night, where the conversation would be concentrating mainly on Hikaru attempting to coerce Sai into buying ramen. Or silly things like which flavor of ramen tasted the best, miso, as insisted by Hikaru repeatedly over Sai's own opinion of shoyu. Even unnecessary topics like which shops sold the best ramen, which shop had the cheapest ramen…

It couldn't be help, Sai was pretty sure that Hikaru had an obsession with ramen that was on par with his own love for Go.

But the topics of discussion, whatever they might be, between them were not important; what was important was the fact that before Hikaru, Sai had never experienced holding such meaningless conversations with anyone else before.

Conversations that were relaxing and lay back, that could be about anything and everything, and was purely for their own enjoyment rather than an actual exchange of important information.

Conversations where you could take a jibe at the other person without fearing the consequences, executing the art of 'teasing', which he had learned from Hikaru that the people participating in had to throw witty insults at their companions with precise skills and embarrassed them without angering them.

It had sounded like a particularly hard skill to master to Sai at first, and he had to sadly admit that it was indeed a feat as hard as it had sounded like. And till this day, even after lots of hard work put in by Sai at practicing it, he had not managed to get it down to perfection like every other thing he could effortlessly.

The art of teasing, a worthy challenge indeed.

Nevertheless, it just meant that conversations with Hikaru were far more different from conversations with other people, and much more enjoyable.

Sai did not have to worry about needing to choose a correct topic; whatever they spoke about had not seemed to matter at all. Most importantly, talking with Hikaru always left Sai a warm feeling tingling in his chest every time.

It was rather similar to the feeling he got from the discussions he had with other Go pros about a particularly exceptional game they played, but it was also different in its own way.

Sai remembered all those times when he was younger where he would always watched on enviously as his classmates chattered happily with their parents when they came to fetch them home, while all he had was a customary greeting from the butler fetching him. He wondered if how he was feeling during his conversations with Hikaru was how his classmates had felt at those times.

He wondered if the warm fuzzy feelings he was finally experiencing after meeting with Hikaru were feelings that he was supposed to feel when chatting with a loved one.

Hikaru had certainly grown onto him so much since their fateful meeting half a year ago that Sai could hardly remembered his life before meeting the teenage ghost. It was as if he had been living in a haze all his life before that, and the only moments that he had clear memories of were when he was playing Go.

Life after meeting Hikaru was as if the haze had been lifted, blown away by Hikaru's sheer presence; everything was suddenly clear and bright as if Sai was seeing things in a new light.

Which was Sai did not like it when Hikaru lost his cheeky grin and the mischievous look in his eyes. The one thing he knew for sure was that a Hikaru without a smile or a grin was abnormal and foreign, not at all something Sai was comfortable with.

Luckily, after today, those meetings with his father were no longer compulsory, as the man could no longer make him do so without Sai's consent. Somehow, Hikaru had grown in his heart so much that he outweighs his father, hands down, no hesitation needed. Sai could always just talk to his father through the phone or something; those monthly meetings can be scrapped. They were important enough that Sai had to go through with them if it meant that Hikaru would lose that smile of his that Sai loved seeing

Sai never was close to his parents. He was polite and respectful to them, as courtesy of being their son, always trying his best to meet their expectations. They had lavished him with praises and approving looks, giving him speeches about how he was a worthy son in return. Life was bland and repetitive; it was always about how high his scores were in school or how many awards he had managed to glean.

Things changed when Sai discovered Go, a burning passion that arise in his heart whenever he sat before the board littered with black and white stones on its surface, laying out pretty patterns that held countless possibilities.

They did not understand, or maybe they did not even bother to try to.

His parents had not been too happy at first that Sai had ventured out of the path they had planned for them, opting out of going to a prestigious university and settling down for an 'unstable profession' which had too many uncertain factors.

But Sai loved Go too much to not continue down the path he had chosen and returned to the one they had. For the first time in his life, he had rebuffed their words, and moved out on his own. He had been eighteen and freshly out of high school, added with the fact that he had led a supremely sheltered life where he could get anything he wanted with a mere request, Sai had a hard time adjusting at first.

Only his love for Go had kept him hanging on. And his obvious talent for the game won out in the end. Straight from his first game in the pro exam, Sai remained undefeated all the way, proceeding smoothly into the Honinbou League and claiming his first title at the young age of 19. It was something totally unheard of, rocking the professional Go world so much that for a short while, Sai's face was plastered everywhere, be it on the newspaper, the magazines, on television programs even. Sai had become something like a celebrity.

Only then had his parents 'forgiven' him and amended their cut-off relationship.

Sai met his first defeat on the board only when he was halfway into the Mejin League and met someone named Touya Kouyo. He knew of the man before that of course, he was the teacher to the sole friend he had managed to make from the time he took the Go-Pro examinations. Ogata Seiji was one of the three who had passed in that year together with Sai, and the only one who talked to him on a regular basis despite Sai's distant demeanor.

The match he had with Touya Kouyo made him respected the man very much, and if Sai dared to say it, he would like to call the older man a rival. Touya Kouyo had claimed the Meijin title shortly after that match, and will even be challenging Sai for the Honinbou title this year. Six matches had been played between them so far and Sai had won only three, the upcoming last match would be the deciding factor if Sai would be able to hold on to his title and proving to the world that he was as good a player as any other veteran pro despite his young age.

But first, before the matter of defending his title and honor, he had an emo teenage ghost to deal with.

"Hikaruuuuuu~ I have no need to visit the Go Institute today, but let's go get some ramen anyway!" He beamed at his own bewildered, personal ghost who stared at him for 3 silent seconds.

"Alright. Who are you and what have you done to Sai?" Hikaru said suspiciously, narrowing those gray-green eyes of his, but Sai could tell the signs of a smirk forming on his face.

"Hikaru, you meanie!" Sai pouted. "It's evil enough that you didn't wish me a happy birthday even though I reminded you at least 5 times the past week, but now you are even suspecting me when I try to be nice and bring you out for ramen…Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh." He pounded on Hikaru and faked a sob.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch, get off Sai, you're heavy! Alright alright, it's my fault okay? I'll make it up to you tonight; we'll play as many games as you want." Hikaru gasped from under his tight embrace.

"We'll play a few games of blind Go first." Sai decided happily, releasing a fraction of his tight grip on Hikaru.

"Yea, yea, whatever floats your boat."

"Then we'll play a few one-color Go too?"

"If you want."

"Follow by speed go!"

"If that's what it takes for you to get off me!"

"We should try a three on three with force tie too!"

"Not promising you anything I can't do."

"Then let's play until Hikaru can do it effortlessly!"

"Against you? You never hold back on games with me!"

"But forcing a tie is fun!"

"Not against you it's not! Go ask any sane person and I'm sure they will rather jump off a three storey building than playing nonstop with you until they can force tie three simultaneous game against you at the same time!"

"It's not that hard."

"It is!"

"Is not!"

"Is!"

"Not!"

...

..

.

* * *

*I am changing Sai's age from 24 to 20, so this is not a typo. As for why...wait and see~

A/N 2: Please either ignore the mistakes (which I know there are alot) or point them out to me if you're kind enough. I think my English de-proved during the past year without any expose to writing...

This chapter didn't turn out exactly how I wanted, too much about the past and too little about the present, and most likely the next chapter will be the same, I apologize here to any readers if you are disappointed.

Also, as mentioned in the previous chapter, the plot has been changed; the light-heart feel to this story will be taking a darker turn. I think light-heart is simply too hard for me to write, no matter how much I want to. Nevertheless I hope you guys will still like it! Please let me know what you think.

Much thanks to those who had left a review, or add this story to their favorite or alert list.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: If I owned HnG, Sai will never disappear!

A Day with Hikaru: Chapter 6 – A day at the Hospital

"xxxxx" – means talking

'xxxxx' – means thought/speaking through mind link

* * *

It was practically the best match that he had played in his whole career as a professional, and possibly in his entire life. The pattern that had formed beneath his and his opponent's hands was laid out beautifully before him, the stones glimmering in his eyes as if they were glowing.

_Like the hands of god._

It was a close match, and Sai thought that he had outdone even himself on his best day. And Touya Meijin… the man was brilliant as ever, matching evenly to Sai's hands and pushing him, pushing them both harder as the game proceeded. No one could tell who had the lead, not even the two players themselves, not for the entire tense 3 hours that the game lasted. Only when all possible moves were made and the best game of the decade went into yose, was the result made known. Everyone probably stopped breathing the moment that the end result was about to be announced. Sai knew he sure did, eyes trained on the board and heart thumping so loudly that it was a miracle that he didn't suffer a heart attack.

The game was unusually close, and for the most part, it had been Touya Kouyo taking a slight lead…But it could not yet be seen if the last hand Sai made in a desperate attempt to overthrow the Meijin works, if it did, it would turn the situation around in Sai's favor.

A little distance away, from the corner of Sai's eye, his mind could briefly register the fact that an exasperated Hikaru was rolling his eyes while making many impatient faces and gestures. He had half a mind to berate the boy for his blatant display of rudeness in the Room of Profound Darkness (an act of heresy, no matter that no other person was aware of it). He would have done so, if not for the fact that learning if he had defended his title was currently taking up his whole attention.

"… with the six and a half komi considered into effect, Fujiwara-sensei wins by half a moku…" the announcer gulped as he croaked out the result. Sai could not fault him for his voice cracking, for he was sure that if he was to speak now, his voice might sound less composed than he would have liked.

Sai had to bite his lower lip gently to stop it from trembling too much from his excitement and happiness. While too much of a gentleman to show such unsightliness of himself, Sai found himself grateful once more to the white paper fan that he carried around with him (Hikaru had exclaimed that it was cool one day while they were passing by the sales department in the Go Institute) and served the purpose of covering the lower half of his face. It gave him a mysterious look, to quote Hikaru, and allowed him to hide any expression he did not want his opponents seeing. It became something of a necessity, having too many expressions he wanted to hide after the addition of Hikaru to his life. Sai had almost offended a fellow Go-pro the first time Hikaru started to ridicule the unknowing Pro who sat across the board from Sai.

Hikaru took to learning Go as a fish took to swimming, as Sai had been delighted to discover soon after starting to teach him how to play. While his skill to play was still pretty raw and lacked depth, Hikaru was able to read into a game better than Sai expected in a short amount of time. That meant that instead of wandering around trying to entertain himself while Sai played with others, Hikaru started observing Sai's game and took it up upon himself to start a commentary about it.

He completely disregarded the fact that the only one who could hear him was Sai and that his unruly comments might disrupt Sai's concentration on the game he was playing. And disrupted Sai was, at the various names Hikaru came up with, as well as the rather rude faces and gestures he made whenever he managed to spot an opponent placing a stone incorrectly, failing to see the one solution to save a cluster of stones, or simply not resigning when the outcome was clear.

All in all, Hikaru made a rather loud fuss when Sai's opponent refused to give up the fight even when the end was clear in such a way that Sai found oddly humorous enough that he was unable to hold back from grinning. His grin, of course, gave the wrong impression to his opponent that Sai was laughing at him, as if he was looking down at those whose skill could not match his own. Afterwards, Sai had berated Hikaru for his antics in hoping that he would stop, but to no avail, and Sai had to put in extra effort to suppress his urge to grin whenever Hikaru did something ridiculous again during his matches until the day he decided to buy the paper fan.

It was the same paper fan he used at this very moment to hide his disgraceful excitement and happiness, and to maintain the calm and cool image he was known to have to the public. As this was the most anticipated match of the year, there were reporters and cameramen around waiting to receive the results of the match first hand. Many of them now crowded around Sai, either to give their grievance to the lost challenger – Touya Kouyo, seated opposite - or to give their congratulations to Sai and ask his opinions on the match that was just played. Their words registered as useless chatter to Sai's ears, and he paid them little attention. They meant nothing to him, and as such, their words meant just as little. His joy was so great that he only wanted to share it with the one person who mattered.

Sai frowned a little when he turned around to beam at Hikaru and found him not standing behind him, an occurrence that he had come to be familiar with after teaching Go to him a few months ago. It was easier, for some unknown reason that Sai himself had not been able to figure out, for someone to understand a player's game when standing behind the person playing and seeing things from the same perspective instead of from the opposite side. He was used to have Hikaru always behind him during games now, and it had even become something of a habit for Sai to turn around every so often to ask Hikaru's opinion so as to test his skills.

Hikaru was standing a little distance away, in an empty corner of the room, away from the chaos and the crowd of people who had gathered around Sai. He hated people walking through him, and always made sure to stay out of the way.

Sai felt his heart beating fast, and thought it a little strange for himself to get this emotional after winning a game when he was totally calm even before playing it. His heartbeat was so loud that he could practically hear the pounding in his ears, and feel the thumping in his chest, and he felt that he would not be surprised if those people around him could hear it too.

His head was lighter than usual too, yet he chalked it up to the adrenaline from playing such an extremely tense game fading off. Sai had just won the most important match of the year against his biggest rival. Everything was great, and surely nothing can go wrong in this perfect moment.

He probably only turned around a little too fast. The pounding noise in his ears was probably from the other people in this room chattering a little too loudly in their excitement. His heart beating this fast was probably a side effect of him getting too emotional from winning, and would pass in a while.

Sai took a step forward in the direction where Hikaru was. Somehow, his mind was whirling and he could not concentrate enough to send the clear message he wanted through the link he shared with Hikaru. His legs felt a little wobbly, but then again, it was probably from the fact that he had been in a seiza position for the past 3 hours without getting up and there was not enough blood circulation.

And when the world started spinning around Sai, his vision started to give way to black, he only vaguely registered Hikaru's voice resounding in his head calling his name amidst all the buzzing.

The last image he was able to capture before darkness claimed him was that of Hikaru's grey-green eyes looking down at him, widened in shock, horror and fright.

It was either a coincidence, or someone up there was playing an elaborated prank on Hikaru and snickering about it. He blanched in disgust when he alighted from the white vehicle with Sai lying on a white bed and people dressed in white sat around him trying to do…something…to help and came face to face with an all too familiar sight of a hospital.

Well, Hikaru did know that the destination of the stupid ambulance-that-took-way-too-long-too-arrive was a hospital. What he did not expect was simply to see this particular hospital. If Hikaru did not know better, he would have said that Sai did it on purpose, choosing to get admitted to the hospital that Hikaru despised. Yet, it could hardly be Sai's fault that Hikaru was here again, for he was not even awake at the moment. Hikaru sighed. Sai's very existence itself seemed to spite him, no matter how much the genius go pro did not mean to. He was probably not even aware of anything, and was the sole blissful person of the whole affair; actually, Hikaru harbored a pretty good guess that Sai was aware of nothing but Go prior to his arrival. "Typical of Sai," Hikaru thought as he rolled his eyes at the memory of Sai living, eating, breathing nothing but Go.

He swore never to re-enter this place when he left. And yet… Sai was already being unloaded from one stretcher to another and getting taken hurriedly away. However much he hated this place, however much he would rather not enter this place again, none of those mattered as much as Sai's condition now. He had no choice except to follow the stretcher that Sai was on _inwards_.

Finding out Sai's condition was the priority.

It was with great speed that the stretcher Sai was on was rolled into a room, the door slamming shut in Hikaru's face barely a second after the stretcher passed through. A red light shone down on him ominously. He stared at the closed door blankly, and it was not long before he found himself with company. Several others who had their own car had followed the ambulance here and were now staring at the closed door grimly.

Hikaru could barely recognize them and assumed them to be other Go players who were being busybodies. Well, except the one frazzled blond Hikaru believed to be Sai's friend (if someone as socially awkward as him could have one) whom he noticed always hovering around Sai after the official games at the Go Institute.

The one good thing about being an incorporeal spirit, as Hikaru was starting to appreciate, was that he could not be barred from the room by something as silly as a door.

The sight that greeted him after he passed through the door was not a pleasant one. Sai was lying on the stretcher, dreadfully pale and weak, amongst a large amount of equipment that looked more like torture devices than something which is supposed to help. The nurses and doctors were all over the place, shouting out gibberish and words that sounded like an alien language to Hikaru's ears, whooshing through him one after another.

He took another look at Sai, taking a step forward, wanting to get a better look. Placing a hand on Sai's frail face, Hikaru closed his eyes for a second. He opened those green orbs a mere moment later, now rid of worry. He could not explain even to himself how he knew, but he knew for sure all the same, Sai was not going to die today. It was probably some spiritual thing that Hikaru came equipped with.

He gave Sai one last look to confirm that, no, Fujiwara Sai was not sporting any sign of death, before turning around and leaving the chaotic room, there is nothing that he could do here.

Something else awaited his attention.

Hikaru's young face, which had only been full of immature and playful looks before, was dark as he walked. The closer he got to his destination at the other end of the hospital, the colder his eyes became. He gave an icy look at the lone room located in an isolated corner. It was dark inside, and obvious that no one had been here for a long time.

The closed door had a sign of "No Visitors" hanging outside, strangely foreboding and ominous. He did not want to go in. There was no need for him to go in. He knew full well who was inside this room and what condition the patient was in.

He was only here because Sai was brought here and he was too weak, weak enough to want to take a look, even though he knew full well what was to be expected, even though he knew that he would only be disappointed.

He didn't even know why he bothered anymore.

Hikaru ignored the sign on the door and went through it, though not before attempting to angrily kick in the door, which of course resulted in failure and him stumbling in rather ungracefully. It was a large room, with only a single bed inside, placed in the middle surrounded by quite a few pieces of expensive looking equipment. Hikaru glared bitterly at the boy lying on the bed, hooked up with thousands of wires. The only sign that showed that the motionless boy on the bed was still alive was the steady beeping sound of the machine next to him.

It felt like an eternity, the distance between the door and the bed, when in truth it was probably only a few short feet. Each step weighed down on Hikaru as heavy as a ton, even if he technically weighs nothing as a spirit. Hikaru walked slowly, hating it every time he looked down and came face to face with the sight of himself, unconscious, deadly pale and oh, so weak.

Leaving behind the room labeled 'Shindou Hikaru' a short while later, Hikaru let his thoughts drift and allowed his feet to lead the way. He still had some time to kill before Sai came out of surgery.

He really hated this place with all his heart.

Every time he was here, he had to go see his body, no matter how many times he reminded himself that nothing was ever going to change. No one would visit; no one would remember Shindou Hikaru, who was left to rot all alone in a dark corner of this hospital. He especially hated seeing his own face against the white sheets of the bed, the sight of himself hooked up to so many wires on life support, looking like a freak.

He had sworn to never return again when he finally left, having enough of moping around this gloomy place. But concern for Sai had won over his disgust, for how could he stay away from this place, away from Sai? He could not bear the thought of Sai waking up and not being there to be the first person to greet him, to congratulate him on playing and winning a most beautiful game against the strongest Go-player in Japan.

What would Sai think? What if he was to wake up and not see Hikaru beside him? The silly holder of the title of Go-Saint would surely come up with some ridiculous conclusion that Hikaru had 'moved on' or something, and put extra stress on his already weak heart.

Hikaru rolled his eyes again at the memory of Sai the previous time he thought Hikaru had 'moved on' when Hikaru had strayed a little too far and not heard Sai calling. The flood of tears did not stop for hours no matter how much Hikaru had reassured Sai that he had no plans of 'moving on' anytime soon. Most likely, it would be a 'moving back' into his very living body instead of 'moving on.'

It was not long before Hikaru soon found himself standing outside an infirmary room. It seemed that Sai's surgery had concluded successfully. The room was blissfully empty when Hikaru entered. Most likely those Go-Pro busybodies had been chased off so Sai may have a quiet environment in which to rest.

Sai's beautiful lavender eyes were closed in what seemed to be a peaceful sleep and Hikaru had to marvel again at how long his eyelashes were. Longer than a girl's. He remembered having teased Sai about it once before, maybe twice, or was it three times?

He flicked Sai's forehead lightly for making him worry even though he knew that it was nowhere near Sai's time yet, and stared at him for a little while more.

Hikaru was never the most patient of boys, and once it was clear to him that there was nothing else he could do here except to watch Sai and wait, he grew restless. Even though it had been barely a minute since he entered the room, Hikaru would feel stifled if he was to stay in there any longer.

He was neither a doctor nor a nurse, and even if he had relevant knowledge, there was nothing for him to do as an incorporeal spirit. And even as a spirit, it was not like he had some awesome spiritual ability or power to heal. He could not even touch anyone or anything other than Sai and his own body and the one person he cares to converse with was lying on a bed before him, unconscious. Sai might not be dying, but he might also never open those soft gentle eyes ever again as well. And Hikaru was powerless to do anything about it.

Sai had once wondered what would happen to Hikaru if he was not around anymore, and had gotten laughed at when he voiced his silly concern of how lonely Hikaru would be. While Hikaru had to admit that he did not think as far as Sai, and that he would sorely miss Sai as his only worthy source of conversation and interaction, the Go-loving young man was not the only one to see Hikaru in his ghostly form, and certainly not the first.

Perhaps it is now time to revisit the one other person aware of his existence. Hikaru chuckled darkly as he turned and left Sai's room. Since it was likely that Sai was not going to wake up anytime soon, Hikaru planned to make full use of his free time and do a little visiting after all this while.

He used to visit fairly often, before meeting Sai and feeding him the little lie about how a bond had been formed between the two of them and one cannot be rid of the other. While it was true that some sort of telepathic link had been established between the two of them upon their meeting, much to Hikaru's own surprise, it hardly limited his roaming distance as he had wanted Sai to believe. It was simply a tiny white lie he fed to Sai in order to have a legitimate reason to stay around him without arousing suspicion in the beginning.

But in the end it was his own false words working against himself, binding him down. He had no choice besides staying in close range, if only to keep Sai ignorant of his lie, not wanting to have those soulful lavender eyes to ever look at him with hurt and distrust.

Despite himself, Shindou Hikaru had come to enjoy life with Fujiwara Sai. He had come to love his older half-brother dearly…

* * *

A/N: ...and the climax is finally here! (which also means that the end is drawing near)

Hope you guys enjoy the latest plot twist :D and that this chapter explains some of the questions such as if Hikaru is dead. He's something like an "**ikiryō**" in my setting; a manifestation of the soul of a living person separated from their body.

Also, much thanks and love to the awesome Sweetheart Ninja for beta-ing this chapter! Else there would be much, much more grammar mistake lying around.


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